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Arriving in Zadar´s train train station is like introducing someone to your bottom before your face - it´s not the best way to make a first impression.
When I arrived in Zadar I was immediately put off - why have I booked three nights here?! The whole area surrounding the train station and the bus route to my hostel was very ghetto - lots of graffiti, rubbish, run down old buildings. My hostel was about 4km outside of the city centre, but it was right across from the marina, and had some lovely beaches just down the road. When I hopped on the bus I asked the bus driver to drop me off at Puntamika stop, which was right near my hostel (Pointing to myself - ¨Puntamika¨, Bus driver - ¨Dah, dah¨). I wasn´t convinced he understood, but I had faith that someone would be getting off at that stop anyway, so I would just jump off then, instead of trying to work out when to press the button. We had been on the bus for about 15mins when I walked up the aisle to the bus driver and said again ¨Puntamika?¨. He stopped the bus, said something in Croatian, then pointing back across the marina. Turns out that no, my bus driver didn´t understand what I meant, and no one was getting off at Puntamika - b*****! I ended up having to walk about 1km with my big backpack back to where we had come from. Feeling hot hot hot! My hostel looked very much like a school camp - large block of land with lots of detached accommodation buildings, big dining hall, no self catering faciltiies - and my suspicions were confirmed when a dozen or so pre-teens came running down the hall. Fabulous.
After dumping my bag at the hostel I decided to head into the old town to check out the sights. What a beautiful town! Nothing like the Zadar I had first encountered at the train station. Zadar´s old town kind of juts out into the ocean like an ´attached island´, with the majority of Zadar forming the mainland. I decided to take a walk around the town walls (which surround the ´attached island´) alongside the marina. At the furtherest point I found the sea organ! So cool! The sea organ is this amazing musical pipe organ that is literally played by the sea! When waves lap at the side of the sea organ it pushes air through these pipes that are built into the pavement. The pipes are tuned to several chords and notes, and the result is this beautiful melodic droning sound that changes depending on how big the waves are. Hard to explain, but I hope you understand. It was such a relaxing sound that I decided to sit there a while and read my book. I was sitting on the sea organ steps (which are very very large, like 20m long) when a Spanish tour group came to check them out also. Which would have been fine, but they decided to stand RIGHT WHERE I WAS SITTING. I looked up and instead of seeing the sea before me, all I could see what a sea of hairly legs and velcro strappy sandles. Why they picked the exact step I was sitting on to stand and discuss the architectural history of the sea organ is beyond me. So I sat there stubbornly, and made sure that I was in the background of every one of their photos - that´ll teach them, haha.
After my walk around the town walls, I headed to the Cathedral of St Donat, which has another one of those notorious clock towers for tourists to climb. Again, I made myself buy the ticket to go up, and again, I almost didn´t make it, save for the family coming up the stairs behind me. I really do feel silly when I get scared climbing the top, and there is a seven year old child clambering excitedly up the stairs behind me. But I made it to the top, and I took lots of pictures while clinging to the wall behind me at all times. From the top you can see out to all of the islands off of Zadar, which are a lot more barren and rocky than the islands off of Split (which I´ve been told are AMAZING!). From the top I could also see the Forum, these Roman ruins right beside the cathedral. There is so much visible history here, it´s incredible. And the locals just walk right by it, not even blinking, they´re so used of it. I could see some teenagers sitting on the ruins eating McDonalds, no regard or thought to what exactly their bottoms are perched on.
I decided to treat myself to a nice, slightly more expensive lunch, considering I have been really good with my budget, and most of my meals are bought from supermarkets. I found a lovely al fresco restaurant in the old town which looks out onto a church courtyard, and ordered a massive plate of grilled and marinated vegetables, some chips (to balance out the goodness of the vegetables) and a glass of fresh lemonade. SO GOOD! I sat there for a good two hours, just savoring my meal while reading my book and people-watching.
I had heard that the sunsets in Zadar are supposed to be the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, so that afternoon I headed to the rocky beach across from my hostel to take in the sky. However, just my luck, it turned cloudy early that evening. Bummer.
The next day I rose bright an early to make a day trip to Plitvice Lakes, about two and a half hours on the bus from Zadar. Plitvice Lakes are UNBELIEVABLE. They are a UNESCO World Heritage site, and consist of 16 separate lakes that run into each other, making the most beautiful waterfalls and streams. The park is has so many different walking tracks to chose from, and these cute little boats take you across the water to different sections of the lakes. So amazing. I don´t think I can really describe everything I saw, but I took so many pictures that I´m sure you will get an idea. As it is September, and still on the tail end of the tourist season, there were SO MANY people at the lakes. There are sections of the walking tracks that are wooden paths suspended above the water, with no hand rail mind you! This was all well and good, except the phenomenal amount of elderly tour groups made it almost impossible to walk across the paths. These tour groups had such a bad habit of walking two abreast on the paths, and very rarely bothered to go single file, even when there were people coming in the opposite direction. So many times I almost ended up in the water (and swimming is a no no, as the lakes are a national park!) because people could not move to the side of the path in a single line. Very very frustrating... I keep getting the impression that these whirlwind tour groups have the mentality of capturing the world with their cameras, and not really absorbing and experiencing what´s going on around them. It´s like they´re traveling just to have bragging rights at the local bowls club, not to experience culture and share with the rest of the world. I just wish they would look around them with their eyes, instead of through the lens of a camera.
In the end I decided not to stay three nights in Zadar, only two. Zadar is not a bad place, I just felt like I´d seen most of it, and I was really itching to get down to Split, and see the islands that I had heard so much about! While I´m traveling for five months, it doesn´t really add up to much time in each city, considering all of the places I want to see in five months, The morning I was leaving I luckily ran in Bree, the girl from my Zagreb hostel, and we decided to meet up in Split after she had seen Zadar. So I bought a bus ticket to Split early the next morning, eagerly anticipating what was yet to come!
Talk to you soon!
Love Hayley x
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